FILM

Sporting a snappy suit and a flat top, Casper Van Dien looked more like the energetic captain of his last big film, Starship Troopers, than the chubby, long-haired Brom from Sleepy Hollow when he met with reporters in a Four Seasons hotel room Friday. Also featured in The Omega Code, which has been called a Bond film without all the vices, and the yet-to-be-released Partners directed by Joey Travolta, which is described as a humorous Midnight Run, Casper enthusiastically talked about what it was like to be on Tim Burton's set. Talking about his relatively small part in the film, Van Dien fielded questions about Johnny Depp, Tim Burton and a matchup between the Headless Horseman and The Bugs from Starship Troopers.

The Harvard Crimson: What was it like to work with Tim Burton?

CVD: Well, his films are always so odd and out there and different and strange. You think he's going to be so weird. But he's a quiet guy. He's nice. He never screams. And everybody listens to him because he's.... Tim Burton. His films are classics and everybody wants to be a part of them. You want to be in them you want to see them.... You're awe-inspired. You step into his set, into his world, and you go, "Wow, I'm, in the land of Tim Burton. I'm in his mind. I'm in his head right now --I'm like in The Nightmare Before Christmas." This is not the real world. He takes a fantasy world, a surreal world, and makes it unbelievably believable. And it's not real. It's so odd looking, but you believe it wholeheartedly. And that's part of his magic.

THC: How did you get your look for the part?

CVD: [Burton] said "Grow your hair long and get real pale"--yes, that was my real hair in the movie--and I also gained 30 pounds. Gaining weight was actually a difficult thing for me. I'm a health nut, so it was hard. I ate eight meals a day and had four protein shakes a day and two weightgainer bars a day and I cut out cardio. It took me three months to gain it. (Afterwards I became a total vegan for six months and I lost it in a month and a half). I got four copies of Sleepy Hollow, I wached the Disney film, and I got the '77 TV movie, where Jeff Goldblum played Ichabod Crane--and actually Dick Butkus played my role.... You guys can quote me on this: I took nothing from what Butkus did in that TV movie -- absolutely nothing for my role.